Methods and systems related to time triggered geofencing

ABSTRACT

Time Triggered Geo-fencing. At least some of the example embodiments are methods including: receiving a set of variables related to a geo-fence to be established at a predetermined time for a preset duration; establishing the geo-fence at the predetermined time, the geo-fence established for the preset duration; monitoring the location of the vehicle using signals received by an onboard device coupled to the vehicle; and sending an alert related to the location of the vehicle if said monitoring indicates the vehicle has crossed the geo-fence within the preset duration.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/925,452 titled “Methods and Systems Related to Time TriggeredGeofencing,” filed Jun. 24, 2013 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,013,333), which isincorporated herein by reference as if reproduced in full below.

BACKGROUND

A third party having an interest in the location of a vehicle, but notbeing the driver of the vehicle, may desire the ability to obtaininformation about the location of the vehicle in a variety of contexts.Thus, any developments which makes determining the location of vehicleat a specific time will be advantageous in the marketplace.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a detailed description of exemplary embodiments, reference will nowbe made to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows, in block diagram form, a system in accordance with atleast some embodiments;

FIG. 2A shows an overhead view of an established geo-fence in accordancewith at least some embodiments;

FIG. 2B shows an overhead view of an established geo-fence in accordancewith at least some embodiments;

FIG. 2C shows an overhead view of a predetermined area with no geo-fenceestablished in accordance with at least some embodiments;

FIG. 3A shows an overhead view of a predetermined area with no geo-fenceestablished in accordance with at least some embodiments;

FIG. 3B shows an overhead view of an established geo-fence in accordancewith at least some embodiments;

FIG. 3C shows an overhead view of an established geo-fence in accordancewith at least some embodiments;

FIG. 4A shows an overhead view of an established geo-fence in accordancewith at least some embodiments;

FIG. 4B shows an overhead view of an established geo-fence in accordancewith at least some embodiments;

FIG. 4C shows an overhead view of a predetermined area with no geo-fenceestablished in accordance with at least some embodiments;

FIG. 5A shows an overhead view of a predetermined area with no geo-fenceestablished in accordance with at least some embodiments;

FIG. 5B shows an overhead view of an established geo-fence in accordancewith at least some embodiments;

FIG. 5C shows an overhead view of an established geo-fence in accordancewith at least some embodiments;

FIG. 6 shows a computer system in accordance with at least someembodiments; and

FIG. 7 shows, in block diagram form, a method in accordance with atleast some embodiments.

NOTATION AND NOMENCLATURE

Certain terms are used throughout the following description and claimsto refer to particular system components. As one skilled in the art willappreciate, different companies may refer to a component and/or methodby different names. This document does not intend to distinguish betweencomponents and/or methods that differ in name but not in function.

In the following discussion and in the claims, the terms “including” and“comprising” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should beinterpreted to mean “including, but not limited to . . . . ” Also, theterm “couple” or “couples” is intended to mean either an indirect ordirect connection. Thus, if a first device couples to a second devicethat connection may be through a direct connection or through anindirect connection via other devices and connections.

“Geo-fence” shall mean a virtual perimeter enclosing a geographic area.

“Restricted area” shall mean a predetermined geographic area where avehicle does not have permission to enter during a preset duration.

“Allowed area” shall mean a predetermined geographic area where avehicle is allowed to enter during a preset duration.

“Remote” shall mean one kilometer or more.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following discussion is directed to various embodiments of theinvention. Although one or more of these embodiments may be preferred,the embodiments disclosed should not be interpreted, or otherwise used,as limiting the scope of the disclosure, including the claims. Inaddition, one skilled in the art will understand that the followingdescription has broad application, and the discussion of any embodimentis meant only to be exemplary of that embodiment, and not intended tointimate that the scope of the disclosure, including the claims, islimited to that embodiment.

Various embodiments are directed to systems and methods of establishinga geo-fence and monitoring the movement of a vehicle in relation to thegeo-fence. In particular, a geo-fence is established at a specificpredetermined time and remains established for a predetermined duration.During the time the geo-fence is established, the movement of a vehiclewith respect to the established geo-fence is monitored, and alerts aresent to relevant third parties. The specification first turns to a highlevel system overview.

FIG. 1 shows, in block diagram form, a system in accordance with atleast some embodiments. In particular, the system comprises anoperations center 100 communicatively coupled to a vehicle 114 by way ofa wireless network 110. The operations center 100 comprises a computersystem 102. In some embodiments, the computer system 102 may be astand-alone computer system, or may be a plurality of computer systemscommunicatively coupled and performing the functions of the operationscenter 100, the functions discussed more thoroughly below. The computersystem 102 may couple to an administrative user interface 104. Theadministrative user interface 104 may enable an administrative agent 106to control or configure the operation of the system.

In one embodiment, in order to communicate with vehicle 114, theoperations center 100 may further comprise a network interface 108communicatively coupled to the computer system 102. By way of thenetwork interface 108, the computer system 102, and any programsexecuting thereon, may communicate with vehicle 114, such as by wirelessnetwork 110. Wireless network 110 is illustrative of any suitablecommunications network, such as a cellular network, a Wireless Fidelity(Wi-Fi) network, or other mechanism for transmitting information betweenthe operations center 100 and the vehicle 114.

In accordance with at least some embodiments, the operations center 100is remotely located from the vehicle 114. In some cases, the operationscenter 100 and vehicle 114 may be located within the same city or state.In other cases, the operations center 100 may be many hundreds orthousands of miles from vehicle 114, and thus the illustrative wirelessnetwork 110 may span several different types of communication networks.

Still referring to FIG. 1, the system further comprises a vehicle 114communicatively coupled to operations center 100 by way of theillustrative wireless network 110. The vehicle 114 may comprise anonboard device 116 (shown within the dashed line). In some embodiments,the onboard device may be part of the vehicle 114 as purchased from themanufacturer (i.e., an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) device). Inother embodiments, however, the onboard device 116 may be part of athird-party after-market system.

Onboard device 116 may comprise a computer system 118. Although notspecifically shown, computer system 118 may comprise a processor, wherethe processor may communicate with subsystems of the vehicle, such as acomputer system 128 of the vehicle 114. In one example embodiment,onboard device 116 may be configured to couple by way of a connector(not specifically shown) to the onboard diagnostic two (OBD-II) port toread or determine data associated with the vehicle 114.

Onboard device 116 may further comprise a wireless network interface 124coupled to the computer system 118. By way of the wireless networkinterface 112, programs executed by the computer system 118 maycommunicate with other devices. In some embodiments, the wirelessnetwork interface 124 enables the computer system 118 to communicatewith operations center 100 by way of a wireless transmission through thewireless network 110. The wireless network interface 124 thus implementsa wireless communication system and/or protocol.

The onboard device 116 further comprises a global position system (GPS)receiver 120 coupled to computer system 118. The GPS receiver 120receives signals from an array of GPS satellites orbiting the earth, andbased on timing associated with arrival of those signals, a location ofthe onboard device 116 (and thus the vehicle 114) can be determined. Insome cases, the GPS receiver 120 has sufficient functionality tocalculate location, and thus the data passed to computer system 118 maybe a direct indication of location. In other cases, the functionality todetermine location may be shared between the GPS receiver 120 andsoftware executing on the computer system 102, by way of wirelessnetwork 110. That is, the GPS receiver 120 may receive the plurality ofGPS signals and pass the information to a program on the computer system102, which program may then make the determination as to location of theonboard device 116, and thus the vehicle 114. In still other cases,software executing on computer system 118 combined with informationreceived by the GPS receiver 120 may make a determination as to thelocation of the onboard device 116.

In one embodiment the onboard device 116 tracks the vehicle with highprecision using the GPS receiver 120, and may be able to identify thestreet and block at which the vehicle is located at any given time(though the onboard device 116 may not necessarily have or containstreet level databases). In another embodiment, location tracking may beaccomplished by way of cellular signal triangulation. For example, thewireless network interface 124 may be a cellular transceiverimplementing a wireless communication system and/or protocol (i.e.,radio frequency communication by way of electromagnetic wavespropagating through air).

In some cases, the location determined by the onboard device 116 mayonly be a position on the face of the earth, for example, latitude andlongitude. The mapping module 112, located at the operations center 100and receiving a stream of locations from the onboard device 116, maycorrelate to streets and addresses. In other cases, the onboard device116 may have sufficient memory and computing functionality to not onlydetermine position in a latitude and longitude sense, but also tocorrelate the positions to cities, streets, block numbers and addresses.Thus, the onboard device 116 coupled to vehicle 114 may further compriseits own mapping module 122 coupled to computer system 118. In accordancewith at least some embodiments, the mapping module 122 may be a computerprogram or program package that operates or executes on the computersystem 118 to perform a mapping function associated with the location ofvehicle 114 and any geo-fences which may be established by the onboarddevice 116.

The specification next turns to a discussion of establishing ageo-fence. A geo-fence boundary which encompasses or encircles apredetermined area is automatically established by a computer system atrepeating intervals. For example, the geo-fence may automaticallyestablish at the following example intervals: every day; every week day;every weekend day; every third day, or every work day. Although theseintervals have been given as example, any contemplated interval ispossible. The computer system may be a remote system, such as atoperations center 100, or the computer system may be located withinvehicle 114, such as computer system 118. In accordance with examplesystem, establishing is without, at the time of establishment, any inputfrom an administrator, vehicle owner, parent, police officer, or otherinterested third party. Both before and during the time period in whichthe geo-fence is established, the computer system monitors the locationof the vehicle with respect to the geo-fence.

The determination of the vehicle's location in reference to thegeo-fence may be made at any suitable location in the system. Forexample, the onboard computer system 118 (in combination with GPSreceiver 120) may make the determination locally at the vehicle 114,without any input from the operations center. In other cases, thecomputer system 118 reads location data and sends the location data tothe operations center 100, and the operations center 100 makes thedetermination as to the location of the vehicle relative to thegeo-fence. For example, mapping module 112 may be responsible forreceiving location information. If the vehicle 116 crosses into or outof the area bounded by the geo-fence, the mapping module 112 may informthe computer system 102. Likewise, the system may determine whether thevehicle is located within the area to be bounded by the geo-fence at thetime the geo-fence is established.

Depending on the situation, an alert may be sent from the vehicle to aninterested third party which relays information related to the locationof the vehicle in reference to a durational geo-fence. In oneembodiment, the alert may be sent from the onboard device to theoperations center. In another embodiment, the alert may be sent from theonboard device directly to the third party. In yet another embodiment,the onboard device may send an alert to the operations center, and thenthe operations center will subsequently send an alert to the thirdparty. The third party may be the owner of vehicle 114, the parent of achild who is in control of vehicle 114, a police officer, a paroleofficer, or another interested third party. Whether an alert is sent,and what the alert indicates, varies from situation to situation, andwill be described in more detail below with respect to examplescenarios.

The specification thus turns to a variety of different scenarios. Table1 shows a variety of possible scenarios related to establishing thegeo-fence, determining the location of the vehicle, and sending analert. Each scenario will be described in more detail below.

TABLE 1 Scenario # 1 2 3 4 5 Geo-fence established first? Yes No Yes YesNo Vehicle within predetermined No Yes No No Yes area at time ofestablishing Vehicle enters geo-fence Yes No No Yes No afterestablishing? Vehicle leaves geo-fence Yes/No Yes No No No whileestablished? Send Alert? Yes Yes Yes Yes No

Scenario 1—Restricted Area

With respect to Scenario 1, consider FIGS. 2A-2C. FIG. 2A shows anoverhead view of a portion of a city neighborhood 200. In particular,neighborhood 200 may represent the downtown area of city. In thisexample scenario, a parent may want to prevent his child from drivinginto the downtown neighborhood 200 within a certain set of hours, suchas from 11:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. As a result, the parent haspreviously defined a geo-fence around a “restricted area” ofneighborhood 200 which geo-fence will automatically establish from thehours of 11:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. on a nightly basis.

Thus, at 11:00 p.m., geo-fence 202 is automatically established aroundthe restricted area of neighborhood 200. The geo-fence will remainestablished until 6:00 a.m. If, at any time, between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00a.m. vehicle 114 crosses geo-fence 202, an alert will be sent to theparent. In one embodiment, the geo-fence may be automaticallyestablished by the operations center; however, in another embodiment,the geo-fence may be automatically established locally at the vehicle(e.g., by computer system 118 or computer system 128).

In FIG. 2B, geo-fence 202 has been established and at 11:05 p.m. vehicle114 is located within the restricted area bounded by geo-fence 202. Inthis scenario, vehicle 114 should not be located within the restrictedarea bounded by geo-fence 202 at this time (i.e., the hours between11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.). Thus, an alert will be sent (e.g., to theparent) indicating the vehicle has crossed into the restricted areaduring the restricted time period.

In contrast, however, the downtown area may not always be a “restrictedarea”; during “allowed hours” (e.g. 6:01 a.m. to 10:59 p.m.), in theexample the teenager may be free to drive anywhere downtown without hisparents being alerted (at least with respect to his location). Forexample, FIG. 2C shows vehicle 114 located within neighborhood 200 at11:00 a.m. Because 11:00 a.m. does not fall within the example presetduration, geo-fence 202 is not established. As a result, vehicle 114 maybe driven within neighborhood 200 and no alert will be sent to theparents.

Although the specification has discussed the specific example of parentsbeing alerted if a teenager drives into a “restricted area” during arestricted time frame, the method described above is not limited to theteenager/downtown example. Rather, any scenario in which a geo-fence isestablished at a predetermined time, for a preset duration, and around apredetermined area, and for which a third party is alerted if a vehiclecrosses into the established geo-fence may be contemplated.

Scenario 2—Curfew

Now consider Scenario 2 as illustrated by FIGS. 3A-3C. FIG. 3A shows anoverhead view of a portion of a neighborhood. In this example scenario,a teenager may have a nighttime curfew of 11:00 p.m., and thus mustreturn to his house by that time. In particular, in FIG. 3A, a teenageris driving vehicle 114 at 10:58 p.m. He approaches his house 300.Because his curfew is 11:00 p.m., no geo-fence has yet been established.

In FIG. 3B, the vehicle 114 has pulled into the driveway 302 of house300. At 11:00 p.m., the beginning time of the curfew in this example,the location of vehicle 114 is determined, and geo-fence 304 isautomatically established around vehicle 114. Although not specificallyshown, in this scenario, the curfew is in effect from the example hoursof 11:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. Thus, once the geo-fence is establishedaround the location of vehicle 114 at 11:00 p.m., the geo-fence isestablished at that location for the remainder of the curfew time period(i.e., until 6:00 a.m.).

In FIG. 3C, the teenager has driven the car outside of the establishedgeo-fence 304 during the predetermined curfew time period at 1:00 a.m.The system detects that vehicle 114 has crossed out of the area boundedby geo-fence 304, and thus an alert is sent (e.g., to the teenager'sparents) that curfew has been violated.

In yet another embodiment, the teenager may be spending the night at afriend's house. In this embodiment, the above situation appliessimilarly. In other words, the teenager drives to his friend's house andparks. Because the teenager's curfew is 11:00 p.m. regardless of wherehe is, the geo-fence is established around the location of his vehicleat 11:00 p.m. and will remain established until the preset durationexpires. If the vehicle departs the established geo-fence before thetime period has expired, the parents will receive an alert.

It should be noted that, in reference to this scenario, a determinationmay be made that the vehicle is not moving (e.g., parked) before ageo-fence is established. If the vehicle is in motion, in oneembodiment, no geo-fence will be established and an alert will beautomatically sent indicating the vehicle is in motion at thepredetermined time. In another embodiment, a geo-fence may beestablished around the location of the vehicle at the predeterminedtime, wherever the vehicle may be located at that exact moment,regardless if the vehicle is in motion or not. Thus, if the teenager isstill driving at 11:00 p.m., the geo-fence established at the locationthe vehicle was located at 11:00 p.m. In this case, an alert wouldimmediately be sent since the vehicle is in motion, and thus travelingoutside of the established geo-fence area.

While example Scenario 2 is discussed as a teenager violating a curfew,the scenario may apply to other situations. In another examplesituation, a police officer may drive his police vehicle home after hisshift. However, because the police vehicle is only supposed to be usedfor official business, a geo-fence is established around the vehicle atthe time it is presumed the officer is home and off-shift. If theofficer drives his police vehicle outside of the geo-fence whileoff-duty, his supervisor may receive an alert regarding off-hourviolations. The geo-fence remains established during the officers“off-duty” hours, and is automatically de-established when the officer'sshift begins. In this example, the establishment of the geo-fence maytake into account the time it would take the officer to drive to andfrom work and home.

In yet another scenario, a parolee may be able to use his vehicle duringwork hours, but similar to the police officer, may not drive the vehicleafter work. Thus, a geo-fence may be established around the parolee'svehicle at a specific predetermined time (e.g., the time the paroleeshould be home), and is maintained as established during those hourswhen the parolee is not working. If the parolee drives the vehicleoutside of the geo-fence during non-work hours, a parole office mayreceive an alert.

Scenario 2 is not limited to the examples described above, and maydescribe any situation in which the location of a vehicle is tracked,and a geo-fence is established around the location of the vehicle at apredetermined time. The geo-fence remains established for apredetermined duration, and an alert is sent to a third party if thevehicle crosses out of the established geo-fence.

Scenario 3

Now consider Scenario 3 as illustrated by FIGS. 4A-4C. FIG. 4A shows anoverhead view of a portion of a neighborhood. In this particularexample, a high school 400 and a high school parking lot 402 are locatedwithin the neighborhood. The parents of a teenager attending school 400may want to monitor whether or not he attends school when he is supposedto, and if so, whether he arrives on time and/or leaves early.

Thus, the parents may configure the geo-fence for a predeterminedlocation, to be automatically established at a predetermined time andfor a predetermined duration, to be repeated indefinitely until theconfiguration of the geo-fence has been changed.

In one embodiment, a geo-fence 404 is automatically established aroundthe school 400 and the parking lot 402 at a predetermined time. In theexample shown in FIG. 4A, the geo-fence 404 is automatically establishedat 8:00 a.m. The system determines whether the vehicle 114 is locatedwithin the geo-fence 404 at the time of establishing. In the case ofFIG. 4A, vehicle 114 is located outside of the geo-fence at 8:00 a.m. Inthis example, the vehicle is not located where it is supposed to be; inother words, the vehicle is not located at school at the predeterminedtime of 8:00 a.m. Thus, an alert is sent to the parents indicating thevehicle is not located at school.

Scenario 4

Scenario 4 occurs after the geo-fence 404 has been established, as shownin FIG. 4B. For example, five minutes after the geo-fence 404 has beenestablished, vehicle 114 enters the geo-fenced area at 8:05 a.m. andpulls into the parking lot 402. The location of the vehicle is nowdetermined to be located within the established geo-fence area, and theparents are sent an alert indication the vehicle has arrived late toschool.

After the predetermined time period has expired, the geo-fence is nolonger established. As shown in FIG. 4C, at 5:00 p.m., the geo-fence isno longer established, and thus vehicle 114 may travel anywhere in theneighborhood vicinity without an alert being sent to the parents.

Scenario 5

Turning now to FIG. 5A, the same school 400 and parking lot 402 fromFIGS. 4A-4C are shown. In Scenario 5, however, vehicle 114 is located atthe school grounds 10 minutes before the predetermined establishing time(i.e., 8:00 a.m.) of the geo-fence 404. Subsequently, in FIG. 5B, atexample time 8:00 a.m. the geo-fence 404 is established around theschool 400 and the parking lot 402. In this example, the vehicle 114 isalready within the area bounded by the geo-fence at the time ofactivation. In one embodiment, an alert may be sent to the parents atthe time of establishment which indicates vehicle 114 is already atschool. In another embodiment, because vehicle 114 is located at thedesired location, no alert may be sent.

If at any point during the duration of time when geo-fence 404 isestablished, vehicle 114 departs the area bounded by the geo-fence, suchas depicted in FIG. 5C, an alert will be sent to the parents indicatingthe vehicle has left school grounds during school hours.

Regardless if the vehicle enters the geo-fenced area after theestablishment of the geo-fence, or if the vehicle was present at thelocation bounded by the geo-fence at the time the geo-fence isestablished, an alert will be sent if the vehicle departs the areabounded by the geo-fence anytime during the established duration.

Although the above scenarios have mainly discussed a teenage driver andalerts being sent to his or her parents, the system and methodsdescribed may apply to other situations with other drivers and otherthird parties. For example, a delivery employee may be monitored by hisemployer during the course of his work shift. If the employee exits thegeo-fence established around his delivery area which has beenestablished for the duration of his work shift, the employer may get analert that the employee is using the company vehicle for a purpose otherthan work.

In another example scenario, geo-fences may be established aroundspecific delivery locations, wherein the employer is alerted when theemployee enters the location encompassed by the geo-fence. Afterdelivery hours, the employer is not concerned about those locations, andthus the geo-fences will not be established and the location of thevehicle is not monitored.

Any number of situations in which the location of a driver is to bemonitored in relation to a durational geo-fence may be contemplated.

FIG. 6 shows a computer system 600, which is illustrative of a computersystem upon which the various embodiments may be practiced. The computersystem 600 may be illustrative of, for example, computer system 118coupled to the onboard device 116. In yet another embodiment, computersystem 600 may be illustrative of computer system 102. In particular,computer system 600 comprises a processor 602, and the processor couplesto a main memory 604 by way of a bridge device 606. Moreover, theprocessor 602 may couple to a long term storage device 608 (e.g., a harddrive, solid state disk, memory stick, optical disc) by way of thebridge device 606. Programs executable by the processor 602 may bestored on the storage device 608, and accessed when needed by theprocessor 602. The program stored on the storage device 608 may compriseprograms to implement the various embodiments of the presentspecification, such as sending an indication of the last known locationof vehicle 114 in the event of monitoring with relation to a curfewgeo-fence. In some cases, the programs are copied from the storagedevice 608 to the main memory 604, and the programs are executed fromthe main memory 604. Thus, the main memory 604, and storage device 608shall be considered computer-readable storage mediums.

The method of establishing a geo-fence at a predetermined time and forthe duration of a preset duration is discussed with respect to FIG. 7.FIG. 7 shows, in flow diagram form, a method in accordance with someembodiments. In particular, the method starts (block 700). A geo-fenceis established at a predetermined time, and the geo-fence is establishedfor a duration of a preset duration (block 702). Signals are receivedindicative of a location of a vehicle, the receiving by an onboarddevice coupled to the vehicle (block 704). The method moves todetermining if the vehicle has crossed the geo-fence within the presetduration (block 706) and if the vehicle has crossed the geo-fence withinthe preset duration and alert is sent related to the location of thevehicle (block 708). Thereafter, the method ends (710).

From the description provided herein, those skilled in the art arereadily able to combine software created as described with appropriategeneral-purpose or special-purpose computer hardware to create acomputer system and/or computer sub-components in accordance with thevarious embodiments, to create a computer system and/or computersub-components for carrying out the methods of the various embodimentsand/or to create a non-transitory computer-readable medium (i.e., not acarrier wave) that stores a software program to implement the methodaspects of the various embodiments.

References to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “some embodiments,”“various embodiments,” or the like indicate that a particular element orcharacteristic is included in at least one embodiment of the invention.Although the phrases may appear in various places, the phrases do notnecessarily refer to the same embodiment.

The above discussion is meant to be illustrative of the principles andvarious embodiments of the present invention. Numerous variations andmodifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once theabove disclosure is fully appreciated. For example, the variousembodiments have been described in terms of sending alerts related to avehicle's location relative to an established geo-fence. This context,however, shall not be read as a limitation as to the scope of one ormore of the embodiments described—the same techniques may be used forother embodiments. It is intended that the following claims beinterpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications.

We claim:
 1. A method comprising: receiving a set of variables relatedto a geo-fence to be established at a predetermined time for a presetduration; establishing the geo-fence at the predetermined time, thegeo-fence established for the preset duration; monitoring a location ofthe vehicle using signals received by an onboard device coupled to thevehicle; and sending an alert related to the location of the vehicle ifsaid monitoring indicates the vehicle has crossed the geo-fence withinthe preset duration.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein establishingfurther comprises establishing the geo-fence for at least one selectedfrom the group consisting of: a restricted area; and an allowed area. 3.The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the location of the vehiclefurther comprises monitoring by way of a computer system located at aremote operations center.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoringthe location of the vehicle further comprises monitoring by way of theonboard device.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the preset duration isat least one selected from the group consisting of: a window of time;work hours; school hours; and restricted hours.
 6. The method of claim 1wherein sending the alert further comprises sending the alert to atleast one selected from the group consisting of: a parent; a lawenforcement officer; a vehicle owner; and an employer.
 7. A methodcomprising: monitoring a location of a vehicle using signals received byan onboard device coupled to the vehicle; and then establishing ageo-fence around the location of the vehicle at a predetermined time,the geo-fence established for a duration of a preset duration;determining that the vehicle has crossed the geo-fence within the presetduration; and then sending an alert related to the location of thevehicle.
 8. The method of claim 7 wherein the preset duration is atleast one selected from the group consisting of: a window of time;restricted hours; curfew hours; school hours; and work hours.
 9. Themethod of claim 7 wherein sending the alert further comprises sendingthe alert to at least one selected from the group consisting of: aparent; a law enforcement officer; a vehicle owner; and an employer. 10.A method comprising: establishing a geo-fence at a predetermined time,the geo-fence established for a duration of a preset duration;monitoring a location of the vehicle using signals received by anonboard device coupled to the vehicle; and determining that the vehicleis not within an area bounded by the geo-fence within the presetduration; and sending a first alert indicative of the vehicle locatedoutside of the geo-fence.
 11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:determining the vehicle has crossed into the area bounded by thegeo-fence within the preset duration; and sending a second alert relatedto the location of the vehicle.
 12. The method of claim 10 wherein thepreset duration is at least one selected from the group consisting of: awindow of time; school hours; and work hours.
 13. The method of claim 10further comprising: sending a second alert related to the location ofthe vehicle; wherein sending the first alert or the second alert is sentto at least one selected from the group consisting of: a parent; a lawenforcement officer; a vehicle owner; and an employer.
 14. A methodcomprising: establishing a geo-fence at a predetermined time, thegeo-fence established for a duration of a preset duration; monitoring alocation of the vehicle using signals received by an onboard devicecoupled to the vehicle; and determining that the vehicle has crossed outof an area bounded by the geo-fence during the preset duration; andsending a first alert indicative of the vehicle crossing out of thegeo-fence.
 15. The method of claim 14 further comprising: determiningthe vehicle has crossed into the area bounded by the geo-fence after thegeo-fence is established; and sending a second alert indicative of thevehicle crossing into the area bounded by the geo-fence after thegeo-fence is established.
 16. The method of claim 14 wherein the presetduration is at least one selected from the group consisting of: a windowof time; school hours; and work hours.
 17. The method of claim 14wherein sending the alert further comprises sending the alert to atleast one selected from the group consisting of: a parent; a lawenforcement officer; a vehicle owner; an employer.